632 
U. S. P. R. R EXP. AND SURVEYS-ZOOLOGY—GENERAL REPORT. 
For the sake of illustrating the characters of the horns of the moose, I have given figures of 
antlers of an adult from Maine, and of a young male, probably in the second year, from New 
York. An extensive series of antlers from Sweden, in the Smithsonian collection, though 
somewhat different from the American, before me, yet furnish nothing of apparent specific 
value. 
Fig. 1. Alee americanus, No. 857. Maine. Adult. Left horn seen from the front. Size, 5.09 
inches to the inch of the figure. 
Fig. 2. Alee americanus , No. 782. Hamilton county, N. Y. Young male of second year. Right 
horn from the front. Size, 4.10 inches to the inch. 
The moose is the largest of the American deer, quite equalling a horse in bulk. Its 
range at the present day extends, on the west coast of America, from the shores of the Arctic 
ocean nearly to the Columbia river. Further east, the northern limit is about latitude 65, and 
thence through Canada to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the northern parts of New 
York. A few are still killed every year in Essex, Hamilton, and the adjacent counties of the 
last mentioned State, although, owing to the comparatively inaccessible nature of their resorts, 
their pursuit has become extremely difficult. 
It is somewhat unfortunate that the European name of this animal, the elk, should he 
applied here to an entirely different deer. Much confusion has been produced in this way, and 
it becomes necessary to ascertain the nationality of an author before it is possible to know 
exactly what the word elk is intended to convey. 
